Terrence J. Murphy Institute
for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy - $5 million

St. Thomas will use capital-campaign gifts to establish the Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy as a collaboration between its Center for Catholic Studies and its School of Law.  The purpose of the institute will be to pursue a true integration of law and the Catholic intellectual tradition.

A vision for legal education

Such integration was the vision of Monsignor Terrence Murphy, president and chancellor of St. Thomas for more than 35 years, who believed strongly in the importance of a Catholic law school in the Twin Cities. His vocation as priest and career as professor of political science contributed greatly to this aspiration.

During the last century, many Catholic colleges and universities developed schools of law that took their places among the best in the country. Too often, however, in that process the founding institutions became dominated by the belief that religious teachings had little or no proper place in professional education. St. Thomas holds that Catholic teachings – revealed truths – are relevant, indeed essential, to sound professional education, in law and public policy, in particular.

Writing in Ex corde ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II said that "the objective of a Catholic university is to [en]sure ... a Christian presence in the university world confronting the great problems of society and culture."  The purpose of the Murphy Institute is to help bring this "Christian presence" to legal education, to legal scholarship and, ultimately, to lawmaking and public policy.

Concrete benefits

The institute will support progress surrounding several initiatives already launched by the Center for Catholic Studies, in collaboration with several other Catholic universities, concerning law and the Catholic intellectual tradition. The three general categories of activities of the institute will be: scholarly research, curriculum development and community outreach.

At least four concrete benefits will flow from these activities:

• The curriculum in the School of Law will be enriched by the addition, in various places in different courses, of elements of the Catholic intellectual tradition.
• St. Thomas’ effectiveness will be enhanced as the institute provides leadership across the country in the project to restore a Catholic character to professional education.
• Faculty-development resources will be available to St. Thomas faculty members that will prepare them to incorporate more effectively the Catholic intellectual tradition into their scholarship and teaching.
• The local legal community (especially Catholic lawyers) will gain a greater appreciation for the richness and utility of the Catholic intellectual tradition, and lawmakers will gain another perspective that can help shape public policy in positive ways.

Office space will be located in St. Thomas’ School of Law building and in Sitzmann Hall. The funding will provide for initial costs and an initial endowment for the institute.